Chap. 125.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Sections 5, 8, 10, 23 and 24, as
amended, of Chapter 385 of the Acts of Assembly of 1932, as amended, ap-
proved March 29, 1932, and known, designated and cited as the “Virginia
Operators’ and Chauffeurs’ License Act”, relating to what persons shall not
be licensed; applications for operators’ and chauffeurs’ licenses to drive motor
vehicles, expiration dates thereof; violation of license provisions and making
false statements; punishment. [H B 218]

Approved March 7, 1946

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That sections five, eight, ten, twenty-three and twenty-four, as
amended, of chapter three hundred eighty-five of the Acts of Assembly of
nineteen hundred thirty-two, as amended, approved March twenty-ninth,
nineteen hundred thirty-two, and known, designated and cited as the
“Virginia Operators’ and Chauffeurs’ License Act”, be further amended
and re-enacted, as follows:

Section 5. What persons shall not be licensed—(a) No opera-
tor’s license shall be issued to any person under the age of eighteen
years, except as hereinafter provided, and no chauffeur’s license shall
be issued to any person under the age of eighteen years. |

(b) The Division shall not issue an operator’s or chauffeur’s license
to any person whose license, either as operator or chauffeur, has been
suspended, during the period of such suspension; nor to any person
whose license, either as operator or chauffeur, has been revoked under
the provisions of this act until the expiration of one year after such
license was revoked.

(c) The Division shall not issue an operator’s or chauffeur’s li-
cense to any person who it has determined is an habitual drunkard or is
addicted to the use of narcotic drugs.

(d) No operator’s or chauffeur’s license shall be issued to any appli-
cant who has previously been adjudged insane or an idiot, imbecile,
epileptic, or feeble-minded, and who has not at the time of such applica-
tion been restored to competency by judicial decree or released from a
hospital for the insane or feeble-minded upon a certificite of the super-
intendent that such person is competent, nor then unless the Division
is satisfied that such person is competent to operate a motor vehicle
with safety to persons and property.

(e) The Division shall not issue an operator’s or chauffeur’s li-
cense to any person when in the opinion of the Division such person is
afflicted with or suffering from such physical or mental disability or
disease as will serve to prevent such person from exercising reason-
able and ordinary control over a motor vehicle while operating same
upon the highways, nor shall a license be issued to any person who is un-
able to understand highway warning or direction signs.

Provided that the words disability or disease shall not be construed
to mean persons unable to hear or to speak, or both, and who have good
vision and can satisfactorily demonstrate their ability to drive an auto-
mobile or truck, and who have sufficient knowledge of traffic rules and
regulations.

({) The Division shall not issue an operator’s or chauffeur’s li-
cense or temporary instruction permit to any person who has been con-
victed within one year of the application for such license or permit, in a
court of this or any other state, or has forfeited bail, upon a charge of
any of the following crimes; for the violation of a law of this or any
other state, or of a valid town, city or county ordinance of this State,
paralleling and substantially conforming to a like law of this State, and to
all changes and amendments of the law of this or any other state, or ordi-
nance of a town, city or county of this State:

First. Voluntary or involuntary manslaughter resulting from the
operation of a motor vehicle.

Second. Driving a vehicle while intoxicated or under the influ-
ence of intoxicating liquor or narcotic drug.

Third. Perjury or the making of a false affidavit to the Division
under this act or any other law of this State requiring the registration
of motor vehicles or regulating their operation on highways. The making
of a false statement on any application for an operator’s or chauffeur’s
permit.

Fourth. Any crime punishable as a felony under the motor vehicle
laws of this State or any other felony in the commission of which a mo-
tor vehicle is used.

Fifth. Conviction or forfeiture of bail upon two charges of reckless
driving all within the preceding twelve months.

Sixth. A conviction of a driver of a motor vehicle, involved in an
accident resulting in death or injury of another person, upon a charge of
failing to stop and disclose his identity at the scene of the accident.

Seventh. A second conviction of a person operating or permitting
the operation of a passenger automobile for the transportation of passen-
gers for rent or for hire, without having first obtained a license for such
privilege, as provided in section thirty-five (b) of the Motor Vehicle
Code of Virginia, as amended.

(g) The Division shall not issue an operator’s or chauffeur’s li-
cense or temporary instruction permit to any person convicted of a crime
mentioned in the first, second, fifth, or sixth paragraphs of subsection
(f) of this section, for a further period of five years after he shall become
entitled to a license or permit under subsection (f) of this section, unless
and until he shall have proved to the Commissioner his ability to respond
in damages as provided in subsection (c) of section seventeen of this act,
or any other act of this State now in effect or subsequently enacted re-
quiring proof of financial responsibility.

Section 8. Application for operator’s or chauffeur’s license.—(a)
Every application for an operator’s or chauffeur’s license shall be made
upon a form approved and furnished by the Division.

(b) Every applicant shall state the name, age, sex, and residence
address of such applicant, whether or not the applicant has theretofore
been licensed as an operator or chauffeur and if so, when and by what
state, and whether or not such license has ever been suspended or re-
voked and if so, the date of and reason for such suspension or revoca-
tion, and such applicant shall also answer any and all questions con-
stituting a part of the form of application used or otherwise propounded
by the Division incidental to the examination of such applicant for opera-
tor’s or chauffeur’s license.

Section 10. Examination of applicants —(a) The Department of
State Police shall examine every applicant referred to it by the Division
for an operator’s or chauffeur’s license before the Division issues any
such license, except as otherwise provided in subsection (b) of this sec-
tion. The Department shall examine the applicant as to his physical and
mental qualifications and his ability to operate a motor vehicle in such
manner as not to jeopardize the safety of persons or property and as to
whether any facts exist which would bar the issuance of a license under
section five of this act, but such examination shall not include investiga-
tion of any facts other than those directly pertaining to the ability of the
applicant to operate a motor vehicle with safety, or other than those facts
declared to be prerequisite to the issuance of a license under this act.

(b) On and after the effective date of this section, as amended, no
person, except those expressly exempted in sections three and four of this
act, shall drive any motor vehicle on any highway in this State until such
person shall have made application for an operator’s or chauffeur’s li-
cense, as hereinbefore provided, and satisfactorily passed the examination
required by subsection (a) of this section, and obtained either an opera-
tor’s or chauffeur’s license, unless such person shall have heretofore been
issued an operator’s or chauffeur’s license that is renewable in the discre-
tion of the Division. Any operator’s license issued in accordance with the
provisions of this act shall be issued to expire three years from the date
of issuance thereof, and may thereafter upon proper application, and in the
discretion of the Division, be renewed without examination of the ap-
plicant. All operators’ licenses issued prior to July first, nineteen hun-
dred forty-six, shall expire on the date shown thereon. Upon renewal
thereof, after July first, nineteen hundred forty-six, such licenses shall be
valid for three years from the birthday month of the applicant nearest
to the month in which application for renewal is made. All original opera-
tors’ licenses issued after July first, nineteen hundred forty-six, shall be
valid for three years from the birthday month of the applicant nearest to
the month in which the license is issued. Thereafter, all such licenses
shall be renewed in the birthday month of the licensee and shall be valid
for three years. Any chauffeur’s license so issued, or any chauffeur’s
license heretofore issued, may thereafter upon proper application and in
the discretion of the Division, be renewed without examination of the
applicant, and every such license shall be issued to expire one year from
the date of issuance thereof. For each operator’s license issued or re-
newed as herein provided the fee shall be fifty cents (50c), and for each
chauffeur’s license issued or renewed as herein provided the fee shall be
two dollars ($2.00).

(c) The license of any person issued under the provisions of this
section shall be held not to have expired during the period of his service,
if any, in the armed forces of the United States and six months thereafter
or until the termination of the present war and six months thereafter,
whichever first occurs. Any person whose license is extended under the
provisions of this subsection shall have documentary or other proof when
operating any motor vehicle that he is entitled to the benefits hereof.

Section 23. Violation of license provisions.—It shall be unlawful
for any person to commit any of the following acts:

First. To display or cause or permit to be displayed or to have in
possession any operator’s or chauffeur’s license knowing the same to be
fictitious or to have been cancelled, revoked, suspended or altered ;

Second. To lend to, or knowingly permit the use of, by one not
entitled thereto, any operator’s or chauffeur’s license issued to the per-
son so lending or permitting the use thereof ;

Third. To display or to represent as one’s own any operator’s or
chauffeur’s license not issued to the person so displaying the same;

Fourth. To fail or refuse to surrender to the Division, upon de-
mand, any operator’s or chauffeur’s license issued in this State or any
other state which has been suspended, cancelled or revoked by proper
authority in this State or any other state as provided by law, or to fail
or refuse to surrender such suspended, cancelled, or revoked license to
any court in which an operator or chauffeur has been tried and convicted
for the violation of any law or ordinance of this State or any city, town
or county thereof, regulating or affecting the operation of a motor ve-
hicle.

Section 24. Punishable to make false statements——Any person who
shall use a false or fictitious name or give a false or fictitious address in
any application for an operator’s or chauffeur’s license, or any renewal or
duplicate thereof, or knowingly make a false statement or conceal a ma-
terial fact, or otherwise commit a fraud in any such application shall be
guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished according
to the provisions of section twenty-nine of this act.